RISAT-2
SATELLITE - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News: ISRO’s RISAT-2 satellite makes re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere
What's
in the news?
●
ISRO’s RISAT-2 satellite, launched in
2009, has made an uncontrolled re-entry
into the Earth’s atmosphere.
● The space agency on November 3 said the RISAT-2 satellite, weighing about 300 kg, made an uncontrolled re-entry in the Indian Ocean near Jakarta on October 30.
Key
takeaways:
●
RISAT-2 was launched by the PSLV-C12 launch vehicle 13 years ago.
●
ISRO said that though the initial designed
life of the satellite was four years, due to proper maintenance of orbit and
mission planning by the spacecraft operations team in ISRO and by economical
usage of fuel, RISAT-2 provided very useful payload data for 13 years.
●
Since its injection, RISAT-2’s radar
payload services were provided for various space applications.
●
On re-entry, there was no fuel left in the
satellite and hence there are no contaminations or explosion by fuel is
expected.
●
The orbital data available from USSPACECOM were regularly used to
predict the re-entry time and impact.
● It further said the Indian System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM) facility in ISTRAC, Bengaluru had been monitoring the re-entry for the last one month with analysis carried out by VSSC and ISTRAC teams through its in-house developed analysis software and tracking the object utilising Multi Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at SDSC, Sriharikota.
RISAT
2 satellite:
●
RISAT-2, or Radar Imaging Satellite-2 was
India's radar imaging reconnaissance satellite which was part of India's RISAT programme.
●
It was built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and successfully launched
aboard a PSLV-CA launch vehicle in April 2009 from the Satish Dhawan Space
Centre.
●
RISAT-2 was built at an accelerated pace
in response to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
● It is India's first dedicated reconnaissance satellite.
Features:
●
The satellite has a mass of 300 kg.
● The principal sensor of RISAT-2 was an X-band synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Use:
●
It is designed to monitor India's borders and as part of anti-infiltration and
anti-terrorist operations.
○
The images RISAT 2 satellites were used to
plan the surgical strike in 2016 and the air strike on a Jaish camp in
Pakistan’s Balakot in 2019.
●
It provides all-weather surveillance using
synthetic aperture radars (SAR).
● The RISAT series are the first all-weather Earth observation satellites from ISRO.
Satellites
of RISAT Series:
RISAT
2:
●
It was launched successfully on April 20,
2009 by a PSLV rocket. The 300-kg
satellite was built by ISRO using a X-band SAR manufactured by IAI.
●
This satellite was fast tracked in the
aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
● The satellite will be used for border surveillance, to deter insurgent infiltration and for anti-terrorist operations.
RISAT
2B:
●
It is an indigenously developed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging
satellite operating in X Band with 3.6 m radial rib antenna.
●
It was launched by PSLV C46 (Core Alone)
in May 2019.
●
The satellite has the capability to
operate in different modes including Very High Resolution RADAR imaging modes
of 1m × 0.5m resolution and 0.5m × 0.3m resolution.
● It can image during day / night / all weather conditions.
RISAT
2BR1:
●
It is the fourth satellite in the RISAT
series and built by ISRO.
●
It was launched in December 2019 on board
a PSLV rocket.
●
The satellite has resolution of 0.35
meters by which two objects separated by distance of 0.35 meters can be
distinctly identified.
●
The mission life is planned to be 5 years.
●
It is the 50th launch of PSLV and 75th launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre.